MK community speed watch

Rural neighbourhoods in Milton Keynes are using a new Community Speed Watch device to try and stop nuisance driving in their area.

Four Neighbourhood Action Groups (NAGS) have pooled their budgets for the year to buy a portable monitoring device, which lets them know if people are driving too fast. It's after the NAGS named speeding as one of the top priorities they want to tackle in their area.

The device - which is for use by residents independently of the police - will be shared among the four areas and will be used in 30mph and 40mph zones. Residents will use the equipment to capture and record information about any cars which are going too fast and will feed that information back to the police.

Any car which is caught going over the speed limit will get a letter from Thames Valley Police warning them to slow down in the future. If the same car is caught by residents a second time, a final warning letter will be sent out. If there are any subsequent violations, the car will be targeted by Thames Valley Police, who can issue formal speed enforcement like a £60 fixed penalty notice and points on your license, or a court summons. In some extreme circumstances it could result in a driving ban.

"It will hopefully be able to deal with people's preconceptions of whether there is a speeding problem. They can now with this device say, 'well, it's just a perceived speeding problem', or we've got evidence that there is a real problem and we can target our resources better to deal with that."